


Bare to Me, Your Bleeding Soul

by sammyspreadyourwings



Series: Queen Prompts [6]
Category: Bohemian Rhapsody (Movie 2018), Queen (Band)
Genre: Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Idiots in Love, M/M, Miscommunication, POV Alternating, Pining
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-04
Updated: 2019-03-04
Packaged: 2019-11-08 23:46:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,773
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17990807
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sammyspreadyourwings/pseuds/sammyspreadyourwings
Summary: Brian has doubts about their budding relationship, Roger reassures him.





	Bare to Me, Your Bleeding Soul

**Author's Note:**

> Cross post from Tumblr.  
> Slowly moving them over.

Roger had finally convinced him to go out. He’d been hiding away in the flat while he waited for his exam results to come out. It’d been a particularly stressful exam season between the argument with his father in March and cramming for his fourth-year classes. Needless to say, Roger has been patient, but come Saturday before he learned his fate, Brian gave in to the request.

Now he’s wondering why.

Deaky has taken to the dance floor two drinks in and is having the time of his life gen-ed exams not causing him any emotional turmoil. Freddie has vanished to the corner of the part with some of his work friends and Mary if past experiences have taught him anything that he’ll see Freddie once more before the night is over and that’s just so Freddie will let them know where he’s going to be.

None of that bothers him, as much as he’d like a quiet night out with friends to end with the four of them stumbling back to their flat to play scrabble, he’s used to it. He’s even used to Roger smiling and flirting with any woman that looks his way. Then again, that was before the whole confessing their mutual attraction and giving the relationship thing a try.

Brian figures that it has to do more with him, than any fault of Roger. They’ve technically been going out for three months and haven’t moved beyond heavy petting during sporadic make-out sessions. It’s not what Roger is used to he knows, but Brian has been so stressed he can barely think about getting it up.

So, truthfully, he half expected this to happen, he just thought that he might get more of a warning that they couldn’t do this relationship thing again.

It hurts, and he’d rather lick his wounds without anyone seeing him, so he gets up and drops a few pounds to cover the drinks he had. Deaky bounces over to him with a heavy frown.

“I’m heading back,” Brian yells.

John’s frown somehow deepens, “want me to go with?”

Brian steals another glance at Roger, and then shakes his head, “no. I’m going to turn in early.”  
His switch in focus doesn’t escape John, he knows because John has an eyebrow raised as he stares at Roger and the mystery woman. Brian takes advantage of the lack of attention on him and he maneuvers his way through the throng of bodies. The outside is significantly cooler, and the air is cleaner. He takes a deep breath and begins to walk back to the flat.

* * *

Roger yelps when he feels a sharp tug on his ear. A quick glance lets him know that it’s John and he sags. Apparently, he’s done something to piss John off, and in the spirit of not being murdered, he allows himself to be dragged away. He sends his classmate and apologetic smile.

They’re dragged into a quieter part of the pub. Roger looks towards their table and sees that Brian is gone. He nearly thinks that Brian has gone to the bar for more drinks or bathroom. Maybe he can sweet talk Brian into going back to the flat so they can cuddle on the couch under the heavy blanket his mom sent him for the winter.

“ _Now_ you look lovestruck.”

In his daydreaming, he forgot that John still has a rather vicious grip on Roger’s ear.

“What the hell, Deaky?”

“I don’t know exactly what’s going on between you and Brian, but you two don’t seem like you’re on the same page.”

“What?” Roger tilts his head, “where is Brian?”

“He went home, and hopefully that’s where he ends up.”

Roger is too drunk to figure out a cryptic angry Deaky, “what?”

“You looked like you were flirting with that girl, and that upset Brian enough that he left.”

“I wasn’t flirting with her! She’s a classmate.”

Deaky raises an eyebrow, “you may not have been, but it looked a little more than friendly from everyone else’s view in the bar.”

“Christ, I know I have a reputation for being a womanizer, but that doesn’t mean I cheat on people.”

“But have you and Brian really talked about your relationship like that?”

It takes a second because Roger has to filter his thoughts through the slight buzz, but then he comes to the same conclusion that John has. They said that they would try a relationship, but between Roger wanting to take it slow (for once) and a lack of further communication, there’s really no doubt why Brian would take this as the final nail in the coffin. Part of him is hurt that Brian would think that he would be so callous with other people’s emotions, but another part also reminds him that Brian is prone to self-doubt.

“You said that he was going back to the flat?”

“I can only imagine that’s what he meant.”

Roger nods, hands John a wad of pounds for the drinks he’s had and enough for John to buy himself something because Roger owes him big time. He takes off through the pub and out of the door. By the time he reaches their flat, he’s practically sprinting. Part of him hopes that Brian was just moving fast to get home because Roger knows that they should’ve crossed paths. It wasn’t that long of a time between them leaving.

The door is still locked, and a few fumbling attempts later, Roger opens the door to an empty flat. He’s about to run back out and to the places where he knows Brian likes to hang out when a quiet noise reaches his ears. He listens for a second longer and makes out the sounds of sobbing.

His heart breaks. Brian is in his room, and the noises stop when Roger gets closer to the door, somehow, he must’ve made noise or Brian has a freaky sixth sense about him. Not that Roger is much better considering every time Brian enters a room his attention is diverted to him. He knocks on the door in warning and then shoulders it open.

 _He_ wants to cry when he sees Brian tucked away in the corner of his bed, his form impossibly small. Brian looks up and seems surprised.

“I thought you were John.”

Roger winces. The room is dark enough that he’s sure Brian can’t see his expression.

“No, but he’s the one that sent me in the right direction.”

“Oh.”

Wrong thing to say. Roger steps further in the room and kicks the door shut. It doesn’t latch and a little bit of the living room light creeps in, enough so that he wasn’t completely in the dark.

“I think we should talk about what happened tonight.”

He wishes there was more light so he can judge the emotion in Brian’s eyes.

“Can I sit on the bed?”

“I guess.”

Roger sits on the edge, careful to make it obvious that he doesn’t want to crowd Brian, despite how much he wants to take Brian in his arms. He opens his mouth a couple of times trying to think of how to start this conversation, but the only thing that slips to the tip of his tongue are confessions. They’d take a weight off of him, but he’s not so sure Brian would be able to handle them and accept them as truth.

“Am I not good enough?”

His head whips up at the voice. Brian has a soft lilting voice, but this time he sounds soft and _scared._ Roger hates that more than anything. No, he takes that back, its tied with the words that Brian’s spoken.

“You are,” Roger reassures, “I’m sorry I’ve made you felt like you aren’t.”

“But you couldn’t be bothered to tell me that our trial period was over before finding some bird?”

Roger shakes his head and leans towards Brian. His hand finds Brian, and when it isn’t immediately jerked away, he latches onto it. Willing Brian to feel the sincerity of his words through the contact.

“I swear to you, I wasn’t flirting. Not even close,” Roger takes a deep breath, “she was a classmate and she has a pretty wicked sense of humor.”

He sees the mop of curls move, and Roger realizes for the first time that Brian was hiding from him. His chest hurts.

“Why did you think that I was done with this?”

A shrug.

“Words, Bri, please. I don’t think I could handle another miscommunication.”

“We haven’t really done anything two people dating would do,” Brian whispers, “and we certainly haven’t been intimate with each other.”

Roger shakes his head, “we haven’t gone out on any dates, true, but I didn’t want to stress you out more by cutting down on your study times. If you want that, we can do that.”

He senses Brian letting his guard down.

“And the better word is that we haven’t been physical with each other,” Roger’s lips quirk up, “but we have plenty of intimacy.”

Ever since they started this trial, they’ve ramped up the touching. Roger practically drapes himself against Brian’s side, and Brian will play with Roger’s hair while he’s muttering about music or stars or music and stars. It’s the kind of reaffirmation of affection that his other relationships lacked, and he wonders if they did make this official how it would change. Would it make it all sweeter? Would there be more of it?

Brian is watching him. Roger can just make out where Brian’s eyes are now that his eyes have adjusted.

“Roger?”

He half expected for Brian to want him to explain it to him, clearly, that’s how Brian’s brain works after all. It still makes his heart twist and palms sweat. When he had stopped fighting falling in love with Brian, his heart took that as permission to dedicate itself wholly to Brian, if this backfired Roger doesn’t want to even guess at where that’s going to leave him.

“If you still want to do this, if you still trust me enough,” Roger bites his lip, “I want to move our relationship from the trial period. I want us to be official.”

Brian squeezes his hand, “I want that.”

Roger beams and wiggles closer to Brian. He still doesn’t want to push Brian’s boundaries yet. When Brian unwinds his legs Roger climbs on top of them and leans against Brian’s chest. He knows that in the movies this would be the part where they have a firework inducing kiss and declare their undying love for each other.

Listening to Brian’s heartbeat might be better than that.

**Author's Note:**

> @Sammyspreadyourwings


End file.
